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SPN/DA Fic: With a Bang part 5 of 15

Further evidence that I can be talked into anything. lomer asked and so I did it. ♥ In the spirit of fast & fun (and no time for craiji epics) this fic will be: in small installments, flying without a beta, and basically flash-fic of the most flashy kind. (even more flashy for me)

Alec had been awake for a long time but he didn't want to open his eyes.

“That boy has some power in 'em,” Missouri yawned. “Have you been feedin' him?”

The transgenic somehow knew that the woman didn't mean food.

“A little,” Sam answered. “At first it was too keep him calm but now it's like when I'm near any of the others. I-It all turns on and it won't switch off.”

Keeping his eyes tightly shut, Alec felt his mouth tug into a smile.

A switch that wouldn't turn off was a tidy way of putting it.

Alec tried to move his body and wasn't surprised when he didn't have much luck. The synthetic shag rug Missouri used to cover up her bare floors itched his eyes and nose. Although it was quiet now, a soft ringing in his ears still sounded as shrilly as a tuning fork. It had been worse before. He had thought it was going to get louder and louder until his skull finally exploded from the roar. But like Dean kept promising in a whisper over and over, the noise finally started to go away. Dean had told him that he'd be able to move again soon too.

“Help me out here, Alec,” Dean said. “Come on, say something.”

The handcuffs were pulled free and the feeling was massaged back into Alec's hands and arms. As the blood was coaxed back through his muscles, the static sparking in his head gradually receded until it was nothing but a grating hum.

“Come on, dude,” Dean said loudly above him. “Rise and shine.”

There was a nervous edge to the man's voice that yanked at Alec deep under his daze. He knew he should respond somehow to let Dean know that he was still there. Whatever Missouri had done had left him still breathing and thinking. She had shown him so much. Some of it made sense but most of it was just a stream of light and noise that kept tumbling in circles in his brain. Alec tried to rub at his eyes but his hands were still being squeezed, callused thumbs working the center of his palms until they started to hurt. But all he wanted to do was stay in the dark behind closed eyes.

Unfortunately, Dean wasn't about to let him enjoy any oblivion.

“Recite your ABCs. Maybe gimme a date and a year?”

Alec felt his mouth move but no words came out.

“How about a location?” Dean suggested. “Hell, I'll settle for the word 'floor' right now.”

“H-He's burning up.”

“It's okay Sam, just get some more water.”

Alec felt his sweater being pulled off over his head. He didn't realize how blistering hot it was until the touch of cooler air began to evaporate the sweat on his skin. It felt good but he immediately felt his body begin to shiver, his system settling into some kind of shock.

“A-Alec?” Someone else took the sweater and propped it carefully behind his neck. It was Sam's arms that gathered up Alec's trembling body. His voice low in Alec's ear. “Please, open your eyes.”

Alec wasn't ready to open his eyes yet but he could talk.

“I saw her,” his throat was so dry. It felt as if he'd just been standing in the burning bedroom he knew had only been in his head. “She burned alive.”

“It's done now,” Dean told him firmly. “All we wanted was some chance that he'd listen or he'd see. Now he got a little of both.”

Dean sounded tired. Even more tired than Alec felt which was quite an accomplishment considering the circumstances. Coming back to himself piece by piece, Alec automatically tried to shrug out of the grip of the two men holding onto him. He'd never felt so small in his life, the crushing embrace of his father keeping him in check like some little kid.

His father.

Alec felt his eyes burn.

Missouri had been quiet for so long Alec had thought she'd gone.

“The boy can believe it now or he can walk away,” she said. “Now it's all his choice.”

Alec wanted to start laughing at that one. All his life he'd been given plenty of choices all right. Listen or die. Fight or die. Kill or die. His function was to do nothing but make big important decisions like that all day long. Right now, he decided he would never open his eyes again. He could just stay here forever, laying here on the filthy floor buried with all the other crack heads and their rotting dead friends--

“Alec... hey Alec,” Sam shook him gently. “You have to wake up now and tell us what you saw. Can you tell us?”

He hadn't always been called Alec.

Before Max had given him his name he'd been mostly just called 494, but he'd had other more fleeting aliases. He gave them to guards. He passed them on to doctors. When he was in the field on an away mission he'd have as many names as minutes in the day. Names were like the pistols they gave him, pretty, cheap and disposable.

“Alec,” Sam's voice was louder now. “You have to tell me. This entire city might... this city might be in danger. We have to know what you saw--”

“Cut the kid some slack, Sam. Give him a few minutes before you start the 20 questions--”

“No.”

Sam sounded even more exhausted than everyone else did. Alec dimly realized that his father had something to do with all the dreams the lady had sent crashing through his brain. All the pictures and words filled up his head so hard and so fast he'd vaguely remembered screaming for it to stop. He'd heard Sam screaming too. If it hurt getting it all shoved in, Alec wondered what being pulled inside out must have felt like.

“You look like shit,” Dean sighed. “Why don't you take a walk?”

“I said no.”

Alec felt the iron grip around him grow impossibly tighter but the arms were shaking a little bit too. He almost opened his eyes then. He wanted to tell his father that he got it all now. He even wanted to thank him for that one night of safety before the man with the yellow eyes had come to take Alec away. The man with the yellow eyes had another name too. All the people of Manticore called him Lydecker. Colonel Lydecker pretended to be a human being. Just like Renfro, White and all the others. In fact, demons walked all over the planet hiding their eyes and looking normal most of the time.

Alec could breathe again when the crushing warmth reluctantly released him. He listened to heavy footsteps travel slowly up the metal grate of the stairs. After a few minutes the transgenic knew that they were alone. Even the bizarre woman named Missouri had drifted away, her scents and sounds too distant for Alec's groggy senses to detect.Sleep. That sounded pretty good. Alec let his consciousness dip back under into the waiting bliss of nothing.

“Okay Alec, that's enough. It's time to get up.”

That was an order. Alec knew how to listen to those. Kindness just confused him and patience didn't make any sense at all.

“I don't want to.”

“I know,” Dean sounded sympathetic. “Don't worry, I won't ask stupid questions like how yer feelin'. And I won't ask you what you saw. All you gotta do is open your eyes. Think you can do that one for me, pal?”

“No,” Alec breathed. “I can't.”

The last time he had looked at the world, everything had made sense. The Pulse had been a terrorist attack. His parents had been random genetic material spliced in test tubes. “I don't know how else to break it to you, dude. But this is it,” Dean was matter-of-fact. “This is your life now.”

Simple terms were easier to listen to than the cascade of images still flashing through his mind. Pictures of Hell and Heaven. The everlasting fire smoldering below. Another blinding light that burned above. There were rules and laws that ran contrary to everything Alec had ever known and it strained behind his eyes like a physical pain.

Alec blinked until his uncle came into blurry focus above him.

“I gotta ask you something, Dean.”

“Hit me with your best shot.”

“What was my name?”

“Huh?”

To know he'd had a name all along would make everything so different. A family. Parents. Every Manticore orphan's shameful little dream come true. Alec clung to some stupid hope that somehow Dean would know how impossibly important it all was.

“You mean before that other one?” Dean squinted to jump start his memory. “That 331845739494 crap?”

Alec usually wanted to hide from the sound of his barcode being recited from back to front. But Dean had said it like the string of numbers was ridiculous. A lifetime of gray anonymity crafted by Manticore was all dismissed with one easy grin on his uncle's face.

“Oh yeah,” Dean nodded. “Sure you had a name.” His hand slid under Alec's back to help sit him up against the sofa. The arm stayed there, firmly between his shoulder blades to keep him in place. “My brother named you after our dad.”

“That's good,” Alec meant that.

“You don't even know what it is--”

“John,” Alec picked it out from the scatter of his dreams. “John Winchester.”

“I dunno,” Dean laughed in a soft weary way. “Alec is a pretty good one too.”

Alec suddenly had a thought.

“There are a lot more of us. From Manticore,” Alec explained. “Are any of them real kids too?”

“Not many,” Dean shrugged. “Look, those other X guys might have done right by you and I respect that but your blood is here. With me and Sammy. You get that?”

“Yeah,” Alec's thoughts wandered absently to Max's mantra. It never made much sense to him until now. “Never leave your unit.”

Dean was looking at him with that bewildered caution again. Alec put him at ease the only way he knew how, and that was with a smile of his own. It wasn't exactly his best work, but as the tension drained from Dean's drawn features he knew it was good enough.

“Everything cool with you, Alec?”

“I thought you weren't gonna ask me stupid questions.”

“Drink this.”

Alec shirked back from the rusty can Dean was holding in his face.

“What is it?”

“Canned peaches,” Dean picked out a pale sliver and ate it. “Come on, its the best kind.”

It was thick and syrupy, but it was the greatest thing Alec had tasted in a long time. After they'd eaten them all, Dean put another full can in Alec's hands. As he ate Alec felt himself reluctantly begin to relax. Wiping the sticky juice from his hands, he poked around for any more food Dean might have stuffed in his jacket.

Alec paused when he heard a strange sound.

Tilting his head, he heard another small noise come from up above. The third was enough to shudder the floor and catch the attention of the non-transgenic in the room. Crawling into a crouch next to Dean, they both waited silently as the next dull explosion was accompanied by all the people upstairs beginning to scream.

“That can't be good,” Alec said quietly. “That can't be good at all.”

Dean got his jacket and pulled out his gun.

“Doesn't sound like weapon fire,” Alec listened to the next boom that rattled the ceiling and shifted the flimsy stairs. “These are impact tremors. Maybe low altitude incendiary bombs--”

“It's not a bomb,” Dean said flatly. “It's a demon.”

“W-what?”

“They found us,” Dean tossed the can aside and was pulling Alec to his feet. “We gotta go.”

Alec half expected to end up on the floor again but his body took his weight. With one shaky step, he felt his full range of motion had arrived all back where it should be. It felt a little on the weak side but it was enough to get him the hell out of here. He straightened his back as another impact concussed directly above their heads, raining down plaster and buckling steel support beams.

“What about that lady?” Alec looked around the boiler room and the unlit corridors that led off in every direction. “A-And Sam?”

“Don't worry 'bout them,” Dean shoved Alec's sweater into his arms and started pushing him towards the nearest tunnel. “Can you run?”

Alec decided to save his smirk for a later date because it was time to haul ass.

They'd barely cleared the room before it collapsed in a deafening crash behind them. Alec tried to blur but his body settled into a sprint that worked just as fine. Dean was keeping up with him until the next boom struck, knocking them both off their feet in a rain of debris. Alec got back up and headed back through the hanging dust, wondering exactly what kind of weapon a demon must carry around. Whatever it was it was high powered and packed a punch.

He staggered to a stop when he realized there was no one following along behind him in the haze.

“Dean?”

The tunnel was silent.

Alec stumbled over slabs of cracked concrete that had broken loose from the walls.

“Dean!”

There was no answer but the chaotic cries of the panicked crowds one floor above. Hundreds of people were all trying to squeeze through the same blocked exits to get away from the monster that had entered their domain. Alec's ears picked up the sound of someone moving in the dark nearby. For a second he felt a stark relief at the sound of a single set of footsteps rushing towards him. But Alec quickly realized that the tread didn't belong to Dean. It was Sam that appeared out of the murk, pistol raised and chest heaving. He looked ready to fight whatever had knocked down half the building and anything else that came with it.

But Alec somehow already knew the creature Sam had come looking for had already come and gone.